


Merlin and the Gleam

by LauraEMoriarty



Series: His Glowing Hands [6]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Rose Shepard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 08:04:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11100390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauraEMoriarty/pseuds/LauraEMoriarty
Summary: It rains heavily the day they lay Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Madeline Williams to rest.





	Merlin and the Gleam

 

 

 Not of the sunlight,  
   Not of the moonlight,  
   Not of the starlight!  
   O young Mariner,  
   Down to the haven,  
   Call your companions,  
   Launch your vessel,  
   And crowd your canvas,  
   And, ere it vanishes  
   Over the margin,  
   After it, follow it,  
   Follow The Gleam.

\- Tennyson, part IX  _Merlin and the Gleam_

 

 

It rains heavily the day they lay Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Madeline Williams to rest. A cliche, but the leaden clouds do not break their downpour. Flashes of lightning ripple across the open plains, the mud outside a thick quagmire that sticks to boots and squelches while they walk.

 

He wants to climb the big tree. Only six years old, this will not be the first, nor the last funeral, that Hugh Kaidan Alenko attends. The adults are sad, his mum’s eyes the saddest he’s seen them. All the adults talk about a place called The Citadel, and about how the woman in the ground was killed there, fighting someone called-- Sar--  _ something _ .

 

Hugh remembers the woman they’re sad about. She smelled just like mum, all gun oil and eezo. He wanders over to the saddest looking woman, holding a cup of tea in her lace-gloved hand, and tugs gently at her skirt.

 

“Mrs Williams?” Hugh says, and he sees her pause in her conversation and turn her gaze to his.

 

“Yes dear?”

 

“I’m sorry.” He has heard his mum say that to people who have been left behind. “I liked Ashley.”

 

“You’re a sweet boy,” Mrs Williams crouches to meet his eyes. “Your mom did too.”


End file.
